Obamacare: 6 ways to improve it, and how law ignores dental care

By Russ Britt

A couple of Obamacare stories to note on MarketWatch, if you haven’t seen them already…..

Diana Furchtgott-Roth discusses the six ways President Obama’s health-care overhaul could be revamped and improved. Her main point is that since the employer mandate has been delayed by a year, along with several other provisions of the Affordable Care Act, that the whole piece of legislation should be pushed back until 2015.

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Her six ways of improving the program: Allow all plans on the exchanges, raise the individual penalty for not complying, end guaranteed issue and penalize those who sign up after they get sick, give tax credits for health insurance purchases, allow insurers to compete over state lines and create state risk pools for those with severe illnesses.

And Jen Wieczner points out that Obamacare all but ignores dental care. While there are some provisions for child dental care as part of the act, there is no additional coverage for adults, according to the American Dental Association.

The ADA says the percentage of adults going to the dentist has dropped to 37% in 2010 from 41% in 2003. Meanwhile, the number of emergency dental visits doubled from 2000 to 2010, hitting more than 2 million.

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